Jury Convicts Woman in Collar Bomb Robbery

A 61-year-old woman was convicted of participating in a bizarre plot in which a pizza delivery driver was forced to rob a bank wearing a metal bomb collar that exploded shortly after the heist.

The jury deliberated over two days before convicting Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, of Erie, on charges of armed bank robbery, conspiracy and using a destructive device in a crime of violence for bank robbery that killed 46-year-old Brian Wells. She faces a mandatory life sentence when she is sentenced in February.

The verdict was the final piece of the puzzle in a robbery plot so complicated it seemed to spring from the pages of a Hollywood script.

The pizza man, Brian Wells, walked into a PNC bank on Aug. 28, 2003, with a metal collar bomb locked onto his neck. He walked out with $8,702 but was stopped by police nearby. They put him in handcuffs and waited for a bomb squad to arrive. Before it did, the bomb exploded, killing Wells.

Prosecutors later revealed that they believed the crime had been plotted by five people. Wells was in on it, at least at first, and probably only realized at the last moment that his life was in danger, they said. Diehl-Armstrong and three other men were also involved, prosecutors said. One had died of cancer. Another was killed by Diehl-Armstrong. The third pleaded guilty and testified against her.

Defense attorney Douglas Sughrue argued that Diehl-Armstrong's mental disorders and a hostile relationship with at least one of the plotters made it unlikely she participated. In bombastic, expletive-filled testimony over two days, Diehl-Armstrong acknowledged knowing two other plotters - but not Wells - and argued they were framing her.

One of the men, William Rothstein, was a handyman and substitute science teacher who prosecutors say constructed the bomb collar using two egg timers supplied by Diehl-Armstrong. He has since died of cancer.

Kenneth Barnes, 57, pleaded guilty and is serving 45 years in prison. He testified Diehl-Armstrong planned the heist because she wanted to use the money to pay Barnes to kill her father.

Despite her denials, Assistant U.S. Attorney Marshall Piccinini told the jury Diehl-Armstrong was involved "up to her eyeballs."

Among other things, he said Barnes put her at a meeting the day before the heist in which she allegedly tried the bomb collar on Wells to make sure it fit. Barnes said the original plan was to outfit the collar with a fake bomb to scare the bank teller, but that Rothstein had a live device attached to the collar that Wells wore to the real robbery.

Piccinini also contended that Diehl-Armstrong killed her live-in boyfriend, James Roden, 45, more than two weeks before the robbery because he was in on the plot and threatened to reveal it.

Diehl-Armstrong is serving seven to 20 years after pleading guilty but mentally ill to his murder, but said she killed him because he was abusive and didn't do enough to help her investigate a robbery at her home that May, which she claimed was orchestrated by Barnes.

Diehl-Armstrong feuded with Sughrue, her attorney, throughout the trial, claiming he wasn't asking questions to properly let her spell out her story. Sughrue defended her behavior in light of the grisly allegations, telling the jury in his argument before the verdict: "Your job's not to like her or invite her over for dinner or have a birthday party for her," Sughrue said.

[rwsmith29456]

Does anybody know what caused the device to explode? Was it like a timer or cell phone signal? Even if he was in on it himself, these 'people' are trash committing trashy crimes to support their trashy lifestyle.

[josephp5]

It was a timer that detonated the bomb---an egg timer, to be precise.

And there is a lot of controversy over the contention that Brian Wells was in on this plot. There doesn't seem to be a scintilla of evidence that he was, so it is a mystery as to why the investigators believe it.

It seems to me that the investigators simply don't want to seriously consider the possibility that a totally innocent person could be the victim of such a horrible crime.

Also, the U.S. Attorney for that district responsible for overseeing the prosecution at the time, Mary Beth Buchanan, has serious issues with her professionalism and independence.

[kansas1946]

This woman, all of these creeps that thought up this crime, should rot in jail. What a horrible way for this innocent man to die. Anyone with that level of malice and evil should never live among us again. Really disgusting group.

[JavMD]

this is a statement on the pityful sad state of human behavior that everyone should be ashamed of!
What can the government social services, the religious groups, the schools do to help children (who will grow up to be this way)?

Is there not something at the elementary and middle school programs that hint towards kids being 'hillbillies'?

I worked part time at GE - Erie, and listened to some of these Northwest PA hill billies, seriously.. one told me they should shoot all the people on welfare ! and he had teenage kids.. now what do you think will come of those kids???

The schools should join with social services and religious groups with government and help these children who hear and live this every day. Society will be better off ! less crimes, less jails.. and more people contributing to the better society

[josephp5]

I always wondered about the claims that Brian Wells was involved in this, given his obvious low-intensity lifestyle and his parent's insistence that he didn't know any of the other people that were involved.

But then I realized that the federal prosecutor was Mary Beth Buchanan. She is the one that prosecuted a woman for pornography for writing a fictional story on the internet. She kept Tommy Chong of (Cheech and Chong) in prison for 9 months because he lent his name to a line of water bongs. Buchanan's most outrageous prosecution was that of Dr. Cyril Wecht, a prominent Democrat, for the crime of improperly charging about $2000 of travel reimbursement to the State of Pennsylvania. That prosecution ended in mistrial. In testimony to Congress, Monica Goodling, a former employee of Buchanan, testified that Kyle Sampson, the senior aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, discussed with Buchanan which of the 91 U.S. Attorneys were to be dismissed during George W. Bush's purge of U.S. Attorneys that were not political enough.

In short, Mary Beth Buchanan is a zealot and a political hack, and I am suspicious of any claims made by her that Brian Wells was involved in the robbery plot that resulted in his death.

[monique0123]

Whether Wells was in on the robbery planning or not, what a cruel way to die. I seem to recall from previous reports he didn't have the mental capacity to plan this sort of thing. I'm glad they convicted the crooks and hope this case offers closure for his family and friends.